The Fortune 500 comes out just once a year, but the companies on it make headlines every day. Here then are today’s highlights of news and happenings coming from the biggest names in business.
By Shelley DuBois, reporter
STUCK IN TWO DIMENSIONS 3-D TV manufacturers are scrambling to reach their consumer base. While Amazon (AMZN) reported that its its two top two best-selling big sets were 3-D TVs, other Fortune 500 companies are facing disappointing numbers. Best Buy (BBY) believes that consumers are confused by the televisions and Costco (COST) just struck a deal with Samsung to offer a $900 rebate on the TVs and a handful of related products. 3-D TV prices are declining at a rate of about 40%-50% a year. [Wall Street Journal]
RUPERT MURDOCH’S BRITISH BID IS LEGIT the European Commission said today, approving his company News Corp’s (NWSA) proposed purchase of British Sky Broadcasting. The deal, which values British Sky Broadcasting at about 19.1 billion dollars, or a little over 1200 dollars per share, is one of the largest European media deal in years. [Financial Times]
BIENVENIDOS, BOEING The Pentagon is strapped for cash, so Boeing (BA) is going to Mexico to build cutting-edge satellites. The aircraft and defense systems company signed a $1 billion commercial deal with the Mexican government, and will ultimately make three satellites for Mexican civilian and military use. [Wall Street Journal]
STILL FOLLOWING THE HURD The SEC announced that it will launch an investigation of former HP (HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd’s departure from the tech company. Hurd apparently did not violate the company’s harassment policy, but may have leaked secrets regarding a potential acquisition to a contractor. [Bloomberg Businessweek]
BANK OF AMERICA ITALIAN ASSETS SEIZED along with those from Deutsche Bank and UBS as part of an Italian fraud probe. The police have already taken the equivalent of 29 million U.S. dollars from the banks, about 20 million of which came from Bank of America (BAC). [Bloomberg Businessweek]
BP’S BOOMS UNDER CHEVY VOLT’S HOOD GM (GM) has teamed up with a couple of other companies to reuse plastic from booms previously deployed to contain BP’s (BP) oil spill. In their second lives, boom pieces will be combined with other compounds, including recycled tires, to deflect air around the Volt’s radiator. [Fast Company]